page_title: LARLE crater
section_title: Geological history of impact craters
hierarchical_section_title: LARLE crater / Geological history of impact craters
caption_attribution_description: English: Near the lower left corner of this view is the three-petal lander platform that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit drove off in January 2004. The lander is still bright, but with a reddish color, probably due to accumulation of Martian dust. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter recorded this view on Jan. 29, 2012, providing the first image from orbit to show Spirit's lander platform in color. The view covers an area about 2,000 feet (about 600 meters) wide, dominated by Bonneveille Crater. North is up. A bright spot on the northern edge of Bonneville Crater is a remnant of Spirit's heat shield. Spirit spent most of its six-year working life in a range of hills about two miles east of its landing site. An image of the lander platform taken by Spirit's Panoramic Camera (Pancam) after the rover had driven off is at PIA05117. The bright heat shield remnant can be seen in a panorama the same camera took of Bonneville Crater, at PIA05591. This image is one product from HiRISE observation ESP_025815_1655. Other products from the same observation can be found at ESP_025815_1655. HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson. The instrument was built by Ball Aerospace &amp; Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft.
context_page_description: A new class of Martian impact craters have been discovered by Northern Arizona University scientist Prof Nadine Barlow and Dr Joseph Boyce from the University of Hawaii in Oct 2013. They have termed it as ‘low-aspect-ratio layered ejecta craters’. Prof Nadine Barlow, a scientist Northern Arizona University described this class of craters with “thin-layered outer deposit” surpassing “the typical range of ejecta”. “The combination helps vaporize the materials and create a base flow surge. The low aspect ratio refers to how thin the deposits are relative to the area they cover, ” Prof Barlow said. The scientists used data from continuing reconnaissance of Mars using the old Mars Odyssey Orbiter and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, discovered 139 LARLE craters ranging in diameter from 1.0 to 12.2 km, with 97 per cent of the LARLE craters are found poleward of 35N and 40S, while remaining mainly traced in the equatorial Medusae Fossae Formation.
  LARLE craters are characterized by a crater and normal layered ejecta pattern surrounded by an extensive but thin outer deposit which ends in a flame-like shape.
context_section_description: The geological history of Mars can be split into many periods, but the following are the three primary periods:
  Noachian period (named after Noachis Terra): Formation of the oldest extant surfaces of Mars, 4.5 billion years ago to 3.5 billion years ago. Noachian age surfaces are scarred by many large impact craters. The Tharsis bulge, a volcanic upland, is thought to have formed during this period, with extensive flooding by liquid water late in the period.
  Hesperian period (named after Hesperia Planum): 3.5 billion years ago to 2.9–3.3 billion years ago. The Hesperian period is marked by the formation of extensive lava plains.
  Amazonian period (named after Amazonis Planitia): 2.9–3.3 billion years ago to present. Amazonian regions have few meteorite impact craters, but are otherwise quite varied. Olympus Mons formed during this period, along with lava flows elsewhere on Mars.
caption: Bonneville crater and Spirit rover's lander
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